1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to personal visualization devices, in some cases with 3-D and/or color.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently, projection of 3-D video images requires bulky and expensive projection equipment, plus special glasses for the viewer and special theater-quality screens. Thus viewing 3-D videos is an expensive and specialized experience.
As the world becomes more and more mobile, users want the ability to take all kinds of interaction with them. One phenomenon is the emerging craze for tablets. The problem is defining the “right’ size, and how much connectivity to add. Also, there is the increasing cost with the size of the screen as well as the weight, and the monetary loss should an unfortunate incident occur to such a device, like losing it, dropping it, spilling on it, etc.
Also, as more and more 3-D is available in places such as movie theaters, PCs, TVs, and home entertainment systems, users want that experience “to go,” but so far only a few devices are available, typically with very small screens using lenticular lenses. This approach requires a very precise location, and it can cause all kinds of undesired effects, to a degree that some manufacturers have substantial warning labels, or outright do not recommend that young children use them at all.
Also, currently even the most advanced premium venue-based stereo 3-D projection systems, such as Imax 3D™, are not capable of faithfully and exactly re-creating all the 3-D spatial clues required for each individual viewer's vantage point. Thus, such systems are essentially reducing the experience to the lowest common denominator. Furthermore, the one-size-fits-all “3-D” view does not allow for realistic motion parallax and other such strong spatial-awareness clues. More advanced experimental systems that do try to accommodate such natural spatial clues require special additional eyewear optics, which tend to impose severe restrictions on eye motion and field of view and suffer from unacceptable image ego motion correction latency—causing visual discomfort, disorientation and nausea, and impeding natural interaction.